'Thursday Mourning' on Wednesday Morning

'Thursday Mourning' on Wednesday Morning

About a week ago a friend received an email regarding a job on the set of a major motion picture. Being manly and compulsive, I decided to take note of the contact details and apply for this job myself. I would dare to say it was a minute after I pressed 'send' on that desperate little email (composed of manners, humidity, and a fairly empty cv) that my swanky new smart phone rang.

A week later and there I was at five o'clock in the morning, regretting with all of my body. fifteen minutes and a cold shower later, I felt more positive. Twenty-Five minutes and a free breakfast later, I was filled with excitement.

Before I continue, I should probably try to give a small outline on this job. I am a location Marshall for 'Thursday Mourning". 'Thursday Mourning' is in fact a codename for an action film that is currently in production, with a set on my university campus. Not really knowing how much trouble I could get into with my "bosses" if I were to divulge any inside knowledge I have gained about this project to the internet, I will continue to refer to it, and it's titular character, as "Thursday Mourning". I understand that I'm probably making something out of nothing, but when the company running the show is as powerful as this one is, I'm not taking any risks.

Our day started being brought to the "Locations Van" where the "Locations team" (including myself) were handed our blue hi-vis jackets and a walkie talkie. Suddenly, I felt official. I glanced around he area identifying the rookie marshals from the guys who had been working the previous days. We then spent the next forty-five minutes helping the rest of the crew move the bins, tents and whatever heavy-yet-not-expensive lifting we could.

The call rang out on our talkies. The bosses friendly and welcoming voice informing us where we would be standing for the next few shots. I was placed at the top of our campus, separated from the main road by a large fence draped in blue fabric. I was stationed with a guy who had been marshalling for about a week previous to me, which was relieving to say the least. It wasn't that I lacked faith in my abilities to ask strangers to wait, I simply wanted to observe someone else doing it first, so I knew the exact strategy. Turns outs simply saying exactly what you'd like them to do was pretty much it.

Sidenote: During this chapter of the day a man who turned out to be the senior security person of [insert powerful film company's name here] approached us and greeted us with a "You guys are doing a great job" before we really got started. This made me nervous.

As a Marshall we would be notified when to "Lock" (stop people in their tracks so that they would not disrupt the shoot) and when to "Release" our areas. When we had released in this area, me and my partner (for lack of a better term) took it in tuns to walk along the paths, encouraging the punters to move along as swiftly as possible. Whenever it was my turn I took full advantage of this to watch the director instructing Thursday on how to correctly dispose if his enemies.  I assume it was the director, it very easily could have been a stunt coordinator. Unfortunately I was just far enough away that I was unable to make out the facial features, and unable to hear the directions.

Following this there was a change in regards to the "behind the scenes" area, which should more realistically be called the "completely surrounding the scene" area.

After this I was placed the opposite side of the campus by a gate leading to the river thames. The chances of anyone attempting to enter through my gate was slim, leaving me completely bored for an hour resisting the urge to switch my radio channel from 14 (marked 'locations') to 1 (marked 'Assistant Directors').

Despite my boredom, and what turned out to be a sunburnt face despite the cold temperature, I was lucky enough to have a front row seat to one of my workmates being verbally and ever-so-physically abused by a university lecturer. Said lecturer, armed with his bike, would not stop ranting about how he had a lecture in five minutes and how these big businesses were oppressing him. This was the worst punter of the day.

I was then moved to the "college road" where the  majority of traffic was. This, oddly enough, made stopping people-traffic easier, as all you needed to do was stop two of them, and the rest would reluctantly follow suit. I did, however, receive one final lecturer trying to make trouble by telling me he was already running late to his lecture.

"How late?" I asked, trying to feign sympathy.

"Ten minutes" he replied. I was shocked that he felt our delay was more inexcusable than his.

After this, and the day was wrapped up, I was asked to watch the set and make sure no one would steal anything, which was a fairly easy going ending.

As it is late while I am writing this, I feel as though I desperately should get some rest, which probably is a testimony to how hard I have worked today.

My final thoughts of the day, as my eyelids slide down my pupils, is that I could not have asked for a better first day ever on a professional film set unless I had been given the starring role. It was terrifically organised and, despite a disappointing salad to stir-fry, I was extremely well looked after in an extremely safe environment.

Final Sidenote: There is a type of bond that men get after three or four occasions of making eye contact. With this, they can now raise their eyebrows and grunt at each other. I had developed such a bond with Thursday Mourning's stunt double.

    Whilst I was in a hurry to answer the call of the boss, I walked passed the stunt double. I gave him the aforementioned grunt, and received a "How's it going" in an unexpected yet familiar voice. I did not look back more than once, as I did not want to make a big deal. That being said, I definitely mistook the leading man of this film for his double, which is backwards to the point I am almost proud of it.

Almost.